Justin Young might have been the headliner, but Mike Love nearly stole the show during the first showcase of artists featured on HI*Sessions, a YouTube channel launched in 2011 by musician friends Dave Kusumoto and Jon Yamasato.

Thursday’s concert brought the performance-focused web series to the real world at Hawaii Theatre, with each artist getting a chance to share songs they originally performed for HI*Sessions cameras. And that’s where keeping it real went a little wrong for Young, who might have been a little too laid back for his own good on this night.

Love was up first and hit the ground running, turning in a tight set of music from his debut album, 2013’s “The Change I’m Seeking,” along with his latest effort, 2015’s “Love Will Find a Way.” Joined by longtime creative partner Sam Ites, he had fans in the first few rows skanking in their seats and letting out a “cheehoo” or two by his third song.

They sang along to “I Love You,” cheered in appreciation when Love showed off his signature looping pedal skills that turned him into a digital one-man-band on multiple occasions — and nearly gave one Hawaii Theatre usher fits as the aisles filled with people overwhelmed with the desire to get up and dance.

“There’s a lot of mana on this stage,” Love remarked at one point, referring to all the big names who once stood in the same place he found himself on Thursday. The Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning reggae artist added it was “a great blessing” to come back to Hawaii after touring around the world and have the opportunity to play in front of his family and friends in such a historic place.

That international success is due to the exposure he got from HI*Sessions, with the music videos from his appearance on the channel dominating its list of most popular uploads. Love’s live performance of “Permanent Holiday” has been viewed more than 5.4 million times, with three other music videos collectively adding more than 2.5 million more views to his total since they were posted in 2013.

A 15-minute intermission followed by on-stage introductions for Kusumoto, Yamasato and every other person involved in the series effectively killed any momentum Love had spent building up during his hour-long performance, but most of the Hawaii Theatre seats vacated by those who decided to leave early were snapped up by Young’s fans, who showed up fashionably late in droves.

Starting out on stage by himself, Young spent the first few minutes of his 45-minute set with an exhibition of his guitar skills and the silky smooth voice that’s been his calling card for the last 20 years. His four-piece band showed up soon after, joining him to present songs off Young’s upcoming album, “Seven Twenty One.”

The loudest crowd response of the night came when he revisited “Leaving on a Jet Plane” and “Never Forget Where I’m From,” island contemporary hits that still resonate with departing college students and those who end up moving away from Hawaii permanently. Young, however, seems much more content these days with easy-going grooves that have almost a jazz-like vibe to them. He wisely saved “One Foot on Sand” for last, but hearing him sing in Hawaiian on that song only made me wish he would come home to record traditional mele and collect Hoku Awards year after year for his efforts.

This week’s HI*Sessions live showcase is anticipated to be the first in a series, with future YouTube episodes also scheduled to be filmed at Hawaii Theatre. Not every artist they feature has as well-established a fan base like Love and Young currently enjoy, so it will be interesting to see how upcoming concerts with lesser-known artists will fare in one of Honolulu’s bigger performance venues.

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Jason Genegabus has covered the local entertainment, nightlife, music and bar scenes since 2001. Read his blog at inthemix.staradvertiserblogs.com.